I know it’s been eons since I was in school but the old noggin does recall a few embarrassing incidents that happened. Of course if you ask my daughter about “back then” she will probably still tell you it was back in the dark ages and that I rode a dinosaur to my high school prom. It wasn’t quite that bad but still…

I actually think I went to school during a pretty cool era. What could have been cooler than going to high school in the 70’s. It wasn’t the sixties with all the hippies and all that stuff but still close enough that we had some of the left overs plus we had integrated the schools so that we pretty much had the best of both worlds even if the whole interracial thing was still somewhat frowned upon. But, we had lots of friends and cool clothes with our moccasins and bell bottom jeans and platform shoes and mini dresses and afros. I mean we had the goods!

This is the actual skirt I was wearing that day but this is a different pair of clogs. These had wooden soles.

One of my favorite pair of shoes was a pair of platform clogs. They were brown suede across the top and were probably 4 or 5 inch platforms but the heel and platform part was cork. It made the shoe way lighter than those wooden clogs which was good because your legs didn’t get as tired and you felt safer (or at least I did) but the down side to them being light, at least in my case, was that since the shoes were a tiny bit big they had a hard time staying on my feet. And if you happened to be wearing panty hose it was even worse. Sometimes I’d have to scrunch my toes up in the ends of the shoes to keep them on my feet! This made for some interesting walking when you were going down stairs.

This one particular morning I was talking to (flirting with) this boy I had a major crush on laughing and joking around and I was walking down the stairs. I had on a short skirt and I wasn’t paying much attention. Some clogs had a strap around the back of the heel to help them stay in one secure spot. These particular shoes did not. Anyway, I was walking down the stairs and this other boy decided it would be a good idea that when I picked my foot up to walk down to the next stair he would kick the cork heel part of my clog! NOT a good idea!

My shoe went flying down the stairs at breakneck speed with me not far behind it! I think my body gained so much momentum as it flailed down the stairs that I almost passed the shoe at one point! Needless to say, I ended up in a crumbled heap at the big landing where the stairs curved between the first and second floor of the school. I felt like my skirt was up around my neck by the time my body stopped spiraling down the steps but was probably only at my waist.. the botton hem of the skirt that is. Nah, that wasn’t embarassing AT ALL! Thankfully there were not a LOT of people on the staircase at that particular moment but just enough to make it super humiliating.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry so I think I did a little of both. I know I tried my best to jump up as quickly as I could which was a little hard since the shoe had kept going because it hit the wall at the landing with such a force that it kept going and darn near ricocheted off the wall and flung itself down the second part of the stairs where it lay helplessly at the bottom awaiting my return to join it. Since I was laying helplessly at the landing with my crush staring down at me, trying NOT to laugh but not doing a very good job of it, the shoe had to wait on me a couple of minutes and since the remaining shoe somehow stayed on my foot throughout the crash landing it was a little hard to right myself with one bare foot (of course covered in a slick stocking) and one in a 4 or 5 inch platform heel. I was a sight clunking down the bottom half of the stairs with one shoe on, my skirt all askew and my hair looking like Stevie Woner had been my hairdresser that morning. It’s amazing what falling down a flight of stairs can do to your hair!

I was so emabarassed I didn’t know if I should try to laugh it off or just lay there until the bell rang and everyone disappeared into a classroom to leave me all to myself. I think I unfolded myelf from the floor and slowly hobbled my way to the bottom of the steps to retrieve my wayward shoe after my crush stopped laughing long enough to pull me up as best he could. I’m sure I had other equally embarrassing moments but thank goodness I can’t remember them at the moment. Thank God for small favors.

Peg,I can’t stop laughing! I can see you now crashing and burning,with every intent of still looking cool upon impact.Thank God you are now more graceful………………………………………..Well on that note all I can say is “That Crash caused your crush a loss and my gain,” So yes.it was a life changing fall! Love Dwight. Please come home soon!